You are here: Home / Archives for WordPress themes

How to choose your own header images

February 11, 2011 by
FREE Header Image for WordPress themes: size 1024 x 125 pixels

FREE Header Image for WordPress themes: size 1024 x 125 pixels

A suitable header image that highlights the contents of your blog or website makes your site stand out from the rest of the crowd. It also adds to the individuality and personal identification that you and your site are recognized by your friends, family, admirers, and all visitors.

People who are creative themselves can do this job exceptionally better than professional designers, who may sometimes burn a hole in your pocket for this simple job, though there are very good web designers who offer all that is needed for your site’s design in their package offer. Still you may need changes, or just need to change only the header image.

If you are a site owner who depends on professional services for everything this article is not for you. Also, if you are big enough to maintain paid staff for each and every aspect of your site and business, do not read this further. But if you are a do-it-yourself (DIY) site owner, or even a newbie blogger, this article will help you, and you MUST read it.

There are two ways you can get a suitable header image for your blog or site. The first sweat-free option is to make a search and find out suitable images for headers that are offered as public domain images, or free stock images, or whatever name they call for such images. You can find tons of such images on the internet. And the second step is to design your own header images.

It is easier than it sounds, and better for various reasons. First of all, some ready-to-use themes or site design templates that can be used without the knowledge of designing or coding will have options to upload your own header image, as a part of theme customization. Some of them will specify sizes, for example, 1024 x 125, or any other size. That means you have to upload the same size. With a bit of knowledge of resizing photos and images using Adobe Photoshop or other software, you can easily do it.

So, if you are designing your own headers, it is the easiest because you know the size of the header image and you can do it easily from the start of the header image designing work. The image above is created by me, and if you like it you can DOWNLOAD IT HERE and use it for free. If you need more designs, textures, backgrounds, etc., for your WordPress theme design work, you can view some of my free designs HERE. Or, if you need a different size header image for free, just contact us.

The other option is to get the entire work of WordPress installation, theme designing, SEO, etc. done through us so that you get everything at an affordable price that includes one of the best premium themes in the market, or a custom design exclusively created for your site.

Filed Under: How-to, Themes, WordPress Setup Tagged With: , , , ,

How to modify WordPress Themes

December 26, 2010 by

If you are using a standard WordPress theme other than a custom theme developed exclusively for you, chances are that you will lose all the modifications that you made to your theme, when the original theme is modified by the theme developer.

As most of you using ready-to-use WordPress must have noted that you always want to make changes in the look and appearance of the theme. The easiest way to do such changes without changing the core design or structure is to edit the CSS style sheet. For example, you do not like the font Verdana and want to replace it with Arial, you simply add Arial as the first font in the appropriate places in the style sheet. And you are done and find your site or blog showing up with your desired font.

In the above way, you can change font sizes, colors, and many other things just by editing the style sheet. With changes in some other files, you can entirely change the look and feel of your site. Some people may love to present their site in the most aesthetic way and experiment with the themes and style a lot. This may be required even in a custom designed theme, as you find something or the other always needing improvements.

So, you have done everything and all on a sudden everything is lost! You feel frustrated. To avoid this create a Child Theme, the original theme remaining as the parent theme. By doing this, when the parent theme is updated by its developer, you can still continue with your own modified theme as your modifications are automatically preserved, as the Child Theme settings override the Parent Theme, as the Child Theme inherits the functionality of the Parent Theme.

To create Child Theme, simply create its own directory named as ‘original theme-child (or anything you like), and place your modified style.css file in it, and you have a child theme of your own! You can do so without modifying the styling and layout of a parent theme, with some understanding of HTML and CSS. Such a Child Theme works as good as your own custom designed theme and it is not affected when the parent theme is updated. Your newly created child theme can have as little as a style.css file to as much as any full-fledged theme contains with the optional additions of functions.php, template files and other files. For a good understanding of creating your own Child Theme and examples of changes and scripting, visit official WordPress Codex for Child Themes.

Filed Under: How-to, Themes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Selecting the right WordPress theme for your blog

December 22, 2010 by

What kind of theme do you want to install in your blog? Unless you are a seasoned WordPress professional, or at least know the basics of how WordPress works, installing the right theme or template for your blog can pose some problems. To solve this problem, there are a few things you can do.

WordPress offers a variety of themes that you can download or install in your blogs or sites. These are pre-designed WordPress approved themes that are optimized from the point of view of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and available in various designs and requirements of the blogger or webmaster. Most of the themes can be customized to your satisfaction, but of course limited by the parameters set by the theme designer and the requirements of WordPress specifications. So you may end up with the result that you may not have all the required widgets or gadgets, pluggins and other features. If that is the case, deactivate the theme and select another theme and repeat the process of customizing.

The second alternative is to look for the themes of your choice. Make a search on the internet and you can find many thousands of themes that suit your needs. Try some of them and most probably you will get the right theme and designs that suits all your needs. These are about installing FREE WordPress themes.

If the above steps are not suitable for you, you may have to go for the alternatives of contacting some PREMIUM theme sellers to whom you have to pay the price they charge for their designs. The advantage with this option is that you will get the technical and other supports from the theme designer or the theme seller for successful installation and customization of your WordPress themes.

If the above option is not for you, you have to hire the services of a custom theme designer who will do all that you like for the look and feel plus the optimum functioning of your blog or site for the price that they quote for their services.

If you want to be your own master of everything that has to be performed on your site or blog, I will recommend that you experiment with the free themes available from WordPress, and in case of difficulties in customizing, you can always go to the WordPress forum from where many WordPress experts and experienced members shall guide you through the process of installing the right theme for WordPress your site or blog.

Filed Under: Themes Tagged With: , , , ,